Grenell took aim at out Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Fox News, claiming Buttigieg is perpetrating a “hate hoax along the lines of Jussie Smollett.”

“Mayor Pete has been pushing this hate hoax along the lines of Jussie Smollett for a very long time now, several weeks, and I find it really ironic that Mayor Pete stayed silent about this so-called hate hoax on him and others during 2015, 2016, 2017 when Mike Pence was governor,” Grenell said on the president’s propaganda channel, Fox News. “There was total silence. It’s ironic that right about now when he’s starting his fund-raising apparatus to run for president that he comes up with this idea and this attack.”

“One of the things that really bothers me about this attack is that Mike Pence is a friend of mine. Mike and Karen are great people. They are godly people. They’re followers of Christ. They don’t have hate in their heart for anyone. They know my partner, they have accepted us. You ask me do we agree philosophically on every single issue? No.”

What Grenell fails to point out is that Pence also doesn’t think that he deserves protection from discrimination in housing, employment, credit, health care, and public accommodations. Pence thinks (or did, despite one “fact checker’s” best attempts to put a positive spin on it) Grenell could be “cured” of his “dangerous” sexuality. And Pence doesn’t think that Grenell and his partner should have the right to get married or start a family.

Internet troll and rightwing extremists Jacob Wohl and and Jack Burkman were revealed last week as the masterminds behind a clumsy attempt to smear out presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Now the bunglers have been busted trying to organize a fake “Protest Against Homophobic Bigots” outside of a press conference they planed to defend their allegations. […]